Complex environments including computer systems, software systems, or even mechanical systems like vehicles include a large number of components and have many configuration parameters and options. In such complex environments, a faulty configuration or component may be difficult to detect, due to the large number of components and parameters involved. Therefore, users and administrators in such environments may review information generated in multiple event logs to identify configuration issues that may cause system problems or explain problems that have already occurred.
Generally, a human operator will have a very difficult time if she is to manually analyze log entries for a complex system, so that she can detect an event that may identify the source of a problem. Automated schemes may be implemented to facilitate or simplify the log analysis process by grouping log events into classes and listing only the class of events instead of the actual events. This scheme provides more of an overview, and thus fails to provide time based event details that may be important.
For example, the user may not be given direct access to the timing information of each single event within each event class and thus time correlations between events of the same class or between different event classes remain hidden from the user. This approach is undesirable in that the information about the relationship and correlation about the events and the time of occurrence of events is often important in system analysis or trouble shooting; and thus missing such details likely results in a less accurate system evaluation.
Other systems use complex visualization techniques to user represent the occurrences of all the events available, but do not group the events into classes, thus making it hard for the user to identify the type of events that occurred in the system and to find correlations between event classes. Accordingly, systems and methods are desirable that can summarize a target system's event log information but at the same time provide an accurate visual representation of the timing details and their respective correlation between events.